Sunday, December 16, 2007

Impish Fun

In Christmases past our children were delighted to find that not only Santa, but his elves too, had left gifts at our house. Elf Jerome, Elf Herbert, Elf Waldo, and Elf Carl were terrible spellers, and their scrawled messages were often tactless, yet almost always funny. The truth comes out this Christmas as to the identities of these imps. Check it out.

Ho ho ho!

Posted by Cyppy at 9:17 PM  2 comments

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Swivel Chair Shopping

As the weather gets colder, my desire to go out shopping decreases. So I’m doing most of my holiday shopping this year online. There are definite advantages, and disadvantages.

I love the variety of merchandise available. A person can find just about anything imaginable on the web—from giant plush microbes (e-coli and ebola are a little distasteful-looking, but the mono microbe is quite cute and cuddly) to a heated toilet seat (heats to a comfortable 25 degrees Fahrenheit above the average room temperature, and costs only pennies a day).

On-line shopping can be quick and easy. But the forms, you say. I have all my information stored in a free web form filler that completely automates password entering and form filling. I click on “fill forms” and my vital info appears instantly in the right boxes. (Of course I check to make sure the site is secure before making any purchases.)

Many on-line vendors offer free shipping during the holidays, and with a little website comparison shopping, all done from the comfort of my swivel office chair, I can get some pretty good deals.

However, I’ve learned that some of those same benefits can also be banes if I’m not careful. For instance, with so many fascinating products out there, I tend to spend way too much time browsing and comparing and googling until my internet history for a single online shopping encounter scrolls down over two monitor screens. It becomes an obsessive compulsion to find not only a good deal, but the best deal, which can take a bit of time.

When I find a particularly good bargain, I click the web form filler, and buy it. That warm, fuzzy, (I could be a new plush microbe--the shopping bug) successful feeling makes it so easy to start a new search all over again, and buy more…and more... If I’m not careful, the cost, even with all the “bargains”, can rival the time issue as a serious matter for evaluation.

I’ve just about finished up my shopping, and I fear a let-down. I may have to add distant relatives or casual acquaintances to my gift recipients’ list so that I can keep shopping. I saw a neat LED blow on-off candle (a puff of air is all it takes to turn it on or off) and a personalized smiling frog or duck stethoscope cover (to help ease the fright and worry of little ones at the doctor's office and put a smile on their faces). Any takers? I’ll scour the net for the best price.


Posted by Cyppy at 10:04 PM  6 comments

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Serviceable

We’ve all heard the adage, “It is better to give than to receive.” Does it work? Do we really feel better when we’re giving than receiving? What more appropriate time than the Christmas season to put this advice to the test?

Try it and see! During the next month, as we start each day, let us sincerely reflect and meditate on the following question: Who needs my help today? We will surely be inspired with ways we can give service to others. Some opportunities will be as small as giving someone a smile, a compliment, or a hug. Other opportunities may require much more effort and time, such as shoveling a neighbor’s driveway, or babysitting a friend’s children while she shops.

We will quickly begin to recognize and act upon possibilities that we once never would have noticed, or, if we had recognized them, never thought seriously about pursuing them. We may be surprised at the simplicity and ease of many acts of service, and on the other hand, we may be taken aback at the difficulty of some of the chances to help that present themselves to us. But no matter what the service, if we take the time to render it with sincere kindness and love, our joy will be as sweet and precious to us as the gift is to the recipient.

Everyone has times of helplessness, loneliness, and even hopelessness. May we take the challenge this season to give service, thereby providing relief to others from crippling feelings and attitudes, and quite possibly seeing a reversal of any such negative situations in our own lives, as well. In doing so, we will definitely know the meaning of Acts 20:35: “I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Try it, and have a merry Christmas!



Posted by Cyppy at 5:12 PM  3 comments